This month saw the introduction of Shared Parental Leave, which means that for the parents of children born or adopted from 5 April 2015, they can choose to share the first year of, what used to be called, ‘maternity’ leave. Hannah Cottam, Director of Sellick Partnership, has written a guest post on the subject for us.
Shared Parental Leave is seen as a huge leap forward in levelling the playing field for women at work, with childcare often cited as the principle reason women are outperformed by men in terms of seniority and salary.
Following the right to paternity leave brought in three years ago, it is certainly great to see that the government are trying to find ways to support women in their careers, whilst managing a family life. This initiative is the first time that the onus for childcare isn’t assumed to be entirely in the hands of the mother.
As a legal recruitment specialist, I work closely with a number of organisations who come to me to manage the process of an employee taking maternity leave. In addition, I also manage a team of predominantly female recruitment consultants, three of whom have taken maternity leave in the last two years. As a business, it can be extremely challenging to lose a great member of staff and finding someone at the same standard to replace them, but it is more important to not lose that person long-term and as such, it’s vital that this process is as smooth for the employee and employer alike.
I can see how these changes can make parental leave much more palatable to employers. The scheme offers flexibility around the time off, so they could take up to six months in one chunk, or split the six months over a year, which could mean bringing in a more junior team member or that work can be shared amongst the existing team. In reality though, is this likely to cause resentment amongst an already stretched team, and will this guarantee a consistent standard of quality?
There is a practical issue with this as well, it is women who carry the child, give birth and are essential for breastfeeding. Healthcare practitioners nationwide are almost evangelical about the virtues of breastfeeding and this factor alone, hugely impacts how quickly a woman can return to work, as NHS guidelines suggest this should continue for a minimum of six months, but ideally for one year.
Of course there are all manner of entirely impractical and long winded ways around this, but when managing a career, a family and the feeding of a new baby, many will wonder if is it worth the hassle? Particularly if there is a large differential between salaries and parental leave packages.
My main concern about the initiative however, is how realistic it is that men will start to take on the burden of parental leave. Since paternity leave was brought in in 2010 take up has been less than 1%. I believe this is mostly due to the cultural expectation within the workplace and it isn’t unreasonable for male employers to questions how it will look, if none of their management or peers are taking this time off.
HR teams and managers must no longer assume that male employees will be back to work as normal after having a child. If this initiative is to make a difference, it is the responsibility of boards and senior professionals, to demonstrate that this is acceptable within the culture of the business.
Hannah Cottam is a group recruitment director of legal/financial recruitment consultancy Sellick Partnership. With over 15 years’ recruitment experience and direct management experience managing a team of 20.
